Here at The Pheasant Inn it doesn’t seem a minute since we were sitting down in January, planning out the timetable of work for the continuous refurbishment programme of our Northumberland pub and bed and breakfast accommodation.

Our website refresh is now complete, and most exciting of all it’s now mobile friendly to make it easier to access information and even check availability and book a room direct from your phone.

The changes also showcase Garden Cottage, our luxury holiday cottage which is a few yards away from the pub and very handy if you are looking for self-contained bed and breakfast accommodation near Kielder.

The cottage has a fully equipped kitchen for those who want to go self-catering, or our guests can choose to eat in our restaurant or bar in the evenings. It’s ideal for those who want to relax in a comfortable, beautifully-furnished Northumberland holiday cottage but don’t want to spend their holiday being a slave to the cooker.

Living and working in a rural area, and in a building that dates back to the mid-1600s with thick farmhouse walls, means accepting some of the issues related to rural living such as a strong wifi connection. Many of our guests like to have a digital detox while they are with us but for those who need to stay connected, we are very pleased to say that thanks to the installation of a Cat5 cable, we now have free wifi working in all of our guest rooms.

Several of our bedrooms have had a facelift this year, and we have also installed a new fire alarm system in the whole of our bedroom block, which at one time was the barn and the hayloft.

You will gather from all that it’s been a very busy summer so far, and our thanks go to Park End Electrical, the Computer Shop in Hexham, and design and branding experts The Design Engine, whose collective help and hard work has been much appreciated.

In other news, Walter has followed Angela’s lead and had a hip replacement recently, but is recovering well. Thank you to everyone who has asked after the family since the sad passing of Walter’s wife Irene. We are all coping as best we can, and looking to the future.

Last of all, many of our regulars will know what a passion we have for serving fresh, local produce and our kitchen garden where we grow a lot of the vegetables, salad, fruit and herbs that feature on our menus is looking particularly lush this year. We are lucky to have enough space to grow much of what we need - from back door to kitchen in less than five minutes – food doesn’t come much fresher than that!

Here at The Pheasant we regard many of our regular guests as family, and many of you will already have heard the very sad news that Irene, the matriarch of the Kershaw family and one of the three partners in The Pheasant Inn, passed away recently.

Irene and her husband Walter ran the very successful Copper Kettle Tearoom on Front Street in Bamburgh for many years, and when the couple bought The Pheasant Inn in 1985 it had a chequered history and was badly in need of some TLC.

True to character and never one to retreat from a challenge, Irene rolled up her sleeves and got to work alongside Walter and their son Robin to transform The Pheasant Inn into an award-winning country pub serving simple, unpretentious food with good wine and real ales, alongside comfortable bed and breakfast accommodation that every year welcomes hundreds of visitors to our beautiful county of Northumberland.

Irene passed away peacefully at home on Sunday, February 5th, 2017 aged 80 years, after several months of illness, bravely borne. Family and friends gathered together to attend a thanksgiving service at St Peter's Church in Falstone to celebrate her life, and we think she would have been both touched and pleased that so many people turned out, and made kind donations in her memory, totalling £660 divided equally between Tynedale Hospice at Home and Macmillan Cancer Support.

Her influence and her unwavering instinct for providing warm and welcoming hospitality will always be with us and she is very much missed by the family and the Pheasant’s team of staff.

Walter, Robin and Angela would like to pass on their thanks to everyone for their kind words and for their support over the last few months.

Since we opened the doors to Garden Cottage, our new self-contained holiday cottage just yards away from the pub, we have had nothing but kind words from the guests who have stayed there.

It’s lovely to see that all the hard work involved in taking the old house back to its bare walls and creating a warm and welcoming Northumberland holiday cottage has paid off. ‘Immaculate, very comfortable and beautifully furnished’ are just some of comments from guests.

Garden Cottage is ideally placed if you are looking for bed and breakfast accommodation near Kielder Observatory, and is proving popular with star-gazers of all ages. Although the cottage is completely self-contained and has a fully equipped kitchen, many of our guests have gone for a mix and match approach to catering, eating breakfast at the cottage and dining in our restaurant or bar in the evenings.

Our first guests in Garden Cottage were Mr and Mrs Goodson and their friends, who took the time to drop a review onto TripAdvisor: “Our second stay at this beautiful inn was all we knew it would be. It has everything you could possibly want for a relaxing stay. The hospitality is outstanding, the food is superb and the setting is beautiful. Ideal location if you are planning to visit the Kielder Observatory.

We were two couples and we were delighted to be the first guests in the newly-renovated Cottage. It really is amazing. Fully equipped for self-catering if that's what you want. State of the art appliances. Nothing has been overlooked. Luxuriously furnished throughout. Both spacious bedrooms have en-suites with walk-in shower. The living area has a wood burning stove which made the cottage even more cosy on the wet and windy nights over the New Year break. My husband and I travel a great deal and this is the first time I have been so impressed to add an entry to TripAdvisor. Anyone staying here I am sure will feel the same. Book up and enjoy!”

We are really pleased to see the cottage proving so popular. Do get in touch soon if you are looking for a holiday cottage in Northumberland for key dates such as Christmas or New Year, as bookings are coming in thick and fast.